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Sunday, 6 November 2016

Stacked Earrings Challenge Reveal

WhooHoo, it's time again, for a Stacked Earrings Challenge Reveal. It's the fifth time around. Five ladies from around the world have taken turns in sending each other a bead lot with creating earrings from them in mind. This time we were all working with a bead lot put together by Heidi Post from New Orleans USA. Oh my, what a lovely and inspiring collection of classy semi-precious stones, nature materials, glass, plastic and metal bits.

I made five pairs all in all, the last one I finished today actually, and took the photos of them today also, so hence my slight delay from everyone else. Sorry for that.

1. The first thing I was drawn to was the copper curved tubes and those cute small green and brown facetted beads. I made my first pair directly when I had received my parcel a few weeks ago. With the larger couple of the tubes. And the other beads in them all come from Heidi's lot, apart from the head pins and the ear hooks. These earrings have actually become a favourite private pair of mine. I've been wearing them a lot lately. I call them Long Legs. Anyway, the aqua blue opal stones are wonderfully almost glowing. I don't know what stone they are. Does anyone else?

2. Next a pair with the beautiful large facetted Llanite rondelles. I love these stones. And I just read at Heidi's reveal post that she didn't remember what they are, but that there was a special story behind her getting them. Well, I recognized the stone when I saw it. So I checked one of my favourite sources for info on semi-precious stones: the Swedish site/webshop of www.StarEyes.se. There I read this: Lllanite is a rare stone, mined only at one place on earth. The little town of Llanite in Texas USA. It is composed of a mixture of granite and lilac-blue shimmering quartz. The colour of the quartz is believed to come from a mineral called Ilmenite. I just have to show you this mesmorizing close up below :-).

4. My fourth pair - I was so fond of my first pair of earrings with the long legs, so I had to try to make another similar pair with the smaller tubes. The purlpe stone discs are really pretty, kind of glowing when the light falls on them. I do not know what they are though.

5. My final pair that I finished today. This is an unusual construction for me to make, with the two rings joined like that. Therefor I was hesitating about finalising them. But I decided to give it a go, because I really liked the way they looked when I had layed out the beads (but before putting them together). It's the three beads stacked in the center of the inner circle that come from Heidi's lot. A cornflake pearl with a beautiful brownish shimmering colour, and two glass pearls. The large circles/hoops all come from MissFickleMedia.

10 comments:

Malin - you made some beauties here! The hoops are so cool - glad you decided to go with making them. I'm pretty jealous of your Fickle Media stash! I think my favourites are the stone ones with the red hoops - they're very special - and tempting!

I've enjoyed visiting the blogs of the challenge participants today, so many beautiful designs from the same group of beads. You did a great job stacking! I think I like your double hoops the best.Cheers!Lori in Blue Ridge, GA

All of these are great - and I really love the final pair. They look like gyroscopes!

I'm so glad you used the Llanite beads, and I love what you did with them. Your discovery of their name didn't sound familiar though, so I dug through the drawer where I keep all my jewelry related business cards and managed to find his. I'd written "Rhiocite guy" on the back of it. Googling Rhiocite only gave me 2 pages of results and asked if I meant Rhyolite. So I clicked on that and there were some similar looking things, so then I searched Llanite and lo and behold, it's a type of Rhyolite. I guess a very small few people know it as Rhiocite, but you are correct - it is definitely Llanite. Regardless, as long as I've been going to the bead shows, that guy is the only one who's ever had any. He's based in Houston, Texas though - so I guess it's not a huge surprise.

Heidi, that's really interesting about the Llanite beads. And about the name. Isn't that often the case with semi-precious stones. That they go under several different names. It makes things confusing doesn't it. That shop I mentioned www.stareyes.se currently has two different shapes in stock. And also two different pendants. I don't know where she gets her beads/stones, but she most often has a lot of unusual and interesting things in her shop. I buy from her every now and then. If there is something I really like I better get it before it's sold out. Anyway thank you so much for your nice comments :-).

Ah, Malin, you've done it again! I'm smitten by your aesthetic. I just love how detailed and delicate everything is. The first pair is probably my favorite. So dreamy! I think those beads are called opalite.

I've loved following this challenge. It was a fab idea. I hate that it's coming to an end, but it's been a fun ride. Your pieces are so great as usual! I totally dig that first pair too. My guess to that bluish stone (and I'm NO expert) is that it's moonstone. Again, just a guess!!

As well, your last pair is so cool. I'm glad you went with it and tried it out. The uniqueness of the double hoops really gets your attention. Wonderful!

You always give such detail about your design process Malin - which I LOVE! All are beauties of course, but there's something special to me about the turquoise ones - I mean, it may just be that I am a total sucker for the colour, but I love the the use of negative space above the beads below. And your conjoined rings are absolutely marvellous of course! Really interesting to read about those magical gemstones. I haven't managed to use them yet so now I will look at them extra carefully before doing so! I think the purple discs are dyed jade and the glowy white/blue I *believe* are simply very lovely dyed glass.

Hi, I am Malin ...

Beaded Beads

Inspiration

I want to make jewelry like this music. Nothing un-necessary, every little sound there for a reason. Playful, unexpected, minimalistic, casual, magic and absolutely wonderful. So technically skilled and perfect in timing, feeling and groove. Swedish jazz pianist Jan Johansson.